(MENAFN- Gulf Times) The
US is planning to announce a new peace plan for the Middle East,
particularly between Israelis and Palestinians, early next year, Acting
Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs David
Satterfield has said.
'We hope to move forward with that (peace)
initiative at a point in the new year. I underscore that as to the
details of the plan, that will await its roll out, we are not prepared
to announce those details at this time, he said. The US government
official was speaking in a telephonic press briefing yesterday on US
President Donald Trump's recent announcement, recognising Jerusalem as
the capital of Israel.
Satterfield pointed out that part of the
peace plan was to help create a process where the region, Israelis and
Palestinians in specific, can look to a better future not arced by
conflict, isolation and exclusion, but instead 'working with shared
hopes and objectives against common problems.
Satterfield said the
president tried to clarify that this was 'a recognition of a simple
reality and not a resolution of a negotiating process.
Quoting from
the US president's announcement, he said: 'Jerusalem, without a specific
definition of boundaries, or geographic borders, is the capital of the
state of Israel; there must be final status negotiations between Israel
and the Palestinians, direct negotiations, to resolve all of those
specific aspects , all of the questions which have been raised over the
course of the last years.
The Trump administration, he said, is
committed to moving forward on a peace process, which it hopes offers
the region (Middle East) a chance to move from the decades (or years) of
conflicts in the past to a better future to realise the aspirations of
both Israelis and Palestinians.
'The reality is this, I think it is
well understood by all parties, that the only path forward to peace in
the Middle East, the peace between Israelis and the Palestinians, is
direct negotiations between these two parties under the supervision and
with assistance of the US, Satterfield stressed.
According to him,
the president and the secretary of state, along with other senior US
foreign officials, have discussed last week about US' role in advancing
Middle East peace.
Trump has abruptly reversed decades of US policy
recently and recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, generating
worldwide outrage, particularly from Palestinians and Muslim countries.
Satterfield
said the Trump administration is hoping that the leaders of the Arab
world, and world leaders in general, understand what the president
uttered, stressing that 'the words were very carefully chosen.
'Our
hope always is that dialogue, exchange, inclusion not rejection, not
exclusion, not isolation or the past taken by all in this process, he
said.
Satterfield reiterated 'the president is committed with his
peace team to doing everything in our power to move forward at a time in
the new year a peace process, a peace initiative which can move the
region forward.
'We hope that the actions for words used by leaders
now and in the days ahead support that initiative and not make it more
complex, more difficult, he added.
Asked if it is possible for Trump
to reverse his decision, Satterfield said: 'The answer is No. The
president's decision stands, it is what the president believes was the
right step at the right moment, it is a US policy. I don't have any
comments on calls for reversal, except to say that is obviously
something we won't be doing.
Satterfield noted that the president has been studying this issue since he took office.
He
also confirmed that the President has instructed the secretary of state
to begin the planning for the move of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to
Jerusalem. But he said any such move would take years to materialise.
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